


Crimson

by Ryesing



Category: Noblesse (Manhwa)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Divergent, Gen, Will add tags as I go, by far, this is going to be considerably less cute than the last one I wrote
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-23 23:37:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10729632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryesing/pseuds/Ryesing
Summary: As it turns out, the blood of nobles has some... interesting properties.Frankenstein finds this out the hard way.





	1. Chapter 1

"It's a disgrace," he spat. I ignored him, continuing to take readings. "Being captured by a human like this." I turned around, arranging the scalpels on the tray. This one was so annoying. Maybe I'd cut him up first, when I no longer needed them alive. That seemed fitting punishment for irritating me.

"Sit still and this will hurt less," I told him, holding down his arm and stabbing the needle into his vein. I missed. He hadn't taken my advice, instead choosing to flail around as best he could given the restraints. Red blood splattered all over my face and I flinched, hastily pulling out the needle and setting it on the table.

I wiped my face with my sleeve, shaking my head at the scarlet stain. "Now look what you've done." The noble spat curses at me in response. I smiled. "I'll have to do it again, you know. If you just let me get what I need, I'll stop stabbing you." For now, I added silently. Just for now.

I retrieved the needle, wiping it clean on a towel and deftly locating the vein on his other arm, pinning the limb against the wall before inserting the needle. Perfect. I watched the syringe fill up with the crimson stuff before removing it, briefly studying the intense red liquid.

"Filthy creature, giving up on your humanity to make you stronger," he hissed. "Taking the lives of your own kind to make yourself stronger."

I whirled on him, lips pulled into a snarl.

"I have never taken an innocent human life. That's more than most of you and your... kind... can say," I said. "I would never harm an innocent person purely for my own gain. If anyone's a filthy creature here, it's you and your species."

He spat in my face.

I sighed, setting the syringe back on the table before grabbing the scalpel. I considered it briefly, just out of spite, but eventually decided that my desire not to ruin a perfectly good test subject outweighed my desire to stab it into his stupid face.

I washed and put away most of my equipment, rummaging in one of the bins for a sedative while humming loudly to myself. To drown out the cursing. Eventually, I found the vial, carefully measuring out the dosage and pouring it into a new syringe.

On second thought, I probably should have taken his blood before I woke him up, I realized. Stupid Frankenstein. Silly mistake.

I ignored the foul language, carefully injecting the noble with the tranquilizer. His eyes closed and his head drooped. I surveyed the limp body, shaking my head.

I put him back in his cell, carefully checking to make sure his restraints were still firm before locking the door and taking one last look at them. Pitiful, really. Sedated, kept in a cold iron prison. They still managed to look magnificent, somehow.

Then I wheeled the table over to the sink, sorting out the rest of my surgical tools and washing them off carefully. I glanced at my sleeve, grimacing in distaste at the stain. I do so hate dirty clothing. Laundry is so tedious.

"Ow!" The scalpel sliced through my stained gloves, sinking into the soft flesh of my left thumb. Without thinking, I brought my hand to my mouth, sucking on the wound like I used to do when I was a child and didn't know any better. That was a long time ago.

It tasted like rust, i thought, running to get a bandage for my finger. Wrapping the injury up in gauze, I frowned. Another stupid mistake.

“Well, I suppose I should go do the laundry,” I grumbled to myself, slipping off my long white coat and folding it neatly on the table. It was an aggravating task, for sure, even without the stains. And blood was so hard to get out of white fabric. It took forever, and that was if the stain actually did eventually come out.

I decided to leave it for later, which I was loathe to do, but I had more pressing matters to attend to. Such as analyzing the sample I’d taken and writing down the findings. My notes are meticulous and thorough, my handwriting is elegant.

I flipped to an entry describing one of the more recent attacks, calling to mind every gory detail with exact precision. Sometimes, at times like these, I wish I was a little less meticulous and thorough with my note-keeping.

My mood ruined, I sat down in my chair and sadly got to work, wearily poring over page after page of my old findings. Trying to find a connection between the work I did then and then work I was currently doing, trying to block the whispers from my mind.

Give up. Join us. You don’t deserve to live when we died. Just give in, join us in our torment.

I shook my head irritably. I was fairly sure the weapon I’d recently liberated from the Union was talking to me. In my head. It made me wonder whether I was finally going crazy, after all these years. If so, I wondered why my subconscious didn’t come up with something more interesting that these morbid whispers. Running my hand through my blonde hair, I gathered my notes up into a tidy pile once again and re-organized them into their respective folders.

Stretching my sore back, I realized it had been several hours. The nobles were going to need another round of sedatives soon, for sure. I took my time getting to it, standing quietly outside their cell with a tray of syringes, watching them come to groggily.

“You!” snarled one of them, straining against her restraints. I surveyed her coolly, ice-blue eyes flashing dangerously. She flinched and I chuckled softly. Obviously, they were afraid of what I was capable of doing.

At least this one didn’t spit on me.

“Where am I? What do you want from me?” she demanded, panicking as she realized she couldn’t break free. “How dare a human like you do this to us!” I rolled my eyes.

“Ah, yes. Always with the ‘how dare a human do this to us’ stuff.” I frowned. “It gets quite repetitive after a while. I’m afraid I’ll have to stop listening if you keep it up.”

“The family leaders won’t let you get away with this! They’ll come looking for us!” she shouted.

A long pause. One of the captives sneered at me.

“See, he’s afraid of what they’ll do to him when they find us,” he leered.

I snapped out of my reverie, shaking my head and looking at him. “What was that? I’m afraid I didn’t quite catch it. I was trying to decide what to cook for dinner tonight. You were saying?”

Stunned silence. I opened the cell door, carefully bracing the tray of sedatives against my hip. It would be such a bother if they slipped; I would have to go get new ones from the lab room.

“Now, you all stay still and it’ll go smoothly,” I asserted cheerfully. “No need to no any more stabbing than I need to.” I gave a meaningful glance at the subject from earlier. He glared back at me, an expression of pure hatred on his ugly face.

I chided him. “Now, you stop that, or I just might go get that scalpel and stab it into your eye.” Turning away, I busied myself with sedating the most accommodating nobles of the five first. That is, the ones shaking in fear. I suspected they’d never looked death in the eyes before and actually fought for their life before.

And then they met me.

Finishing up quickly, I gathered up my vials and left the room, humming softly to myself. I cleaned the tray and syringes quickly, closing up the lab and grabbing the folded lab coat from the table before closing the door behind me and heading upstairs to cook dinner.

I liked cooking. It’s relaxing - just follow the instructions, add the ingredients, and you’re done. You don’t need to think much, or at least I don’t. Nothing like running tests. I quite enjoy the both of them.

I was cooking steak. I like steak. I'd learned how to make it a long time ago and I'd honed my skills every since. Time was one of the few things I had on my side, seeing as I wasn't going to die anytime soon. For some reason, every since I'd gained my power, I'd simply stopped aging.

It wasn't a bad thing, all factors considered. I'd look young forever. Or if not forever, at least an insanely long time. Just like the nobles of Lukedonia, I thought. Sometimes, I wondered if I was still completely human.

I settled down to eat my steak, glancing around at my empty house. My house contained a grand dinning room, big enough to seat at least ten people, but only I lived here. Money wasn't an issue. I'd always found it quite simple to get a job wherever I went. There wasn't much I wasn't at least passable at by now, and of the rest most of it was vile or disgusting.

I finished my dinner, taking my dishes back into the kitchen and cleaning them. The stairs creaked and I carefully set down the dishes, taking care not to make a sound. There was someone in my house.

Probably a robber. I'd had robberies before. They never ended well.

For the robber.

I sneaked gracefully across the house, making my way silently up the stairs where I was greeted with a shocking sight. One of the nobles whom I'd thought chained up in my basement, wrists bloodied and broken, injured but staring defiantly back at me.

Thats the last thing I saw before the fit's hit my face and the world started to blur in and out of focus. My ears rang. I stood frozen, blinking stupidly. She must have slipped her restraints after breaking her hands. Clever girl, I thought.

She wrapped her arm around my neck, choking me. I gasped for air, still recovering from that first, unexpected blow. She'd thrown everything she had into that punch and to my horror, it'd worked.

I gasped for breath, coughing. Feeling returned to my limbs and I did the first thing I could think of - I bit her. It was spontaneous, a spur-of-the-moment decision. My blunt canines sank into the flesh of her arm, and I bit down for all I was worth.

Noble blood didn't taste my own human blood. It tasted like honey and wine and power. My eyes widened at the sensation. I tore at her arm with my blunt teeth, biting down until my teeth met her bone. Hot liquid dripped down my face, staining my shirt.

She shrieked, trying to pull away from me, but I'd regained my composure. Coming to my senses and realizing what I was doing, I shoved her away. She landed on her feet, raising her guard.

But there was no chance for her anymore. My lips turned up into a snarl as i summoned dozens of wicked tendrils of shadow. They tore through her body with a wet ripping sound.

She jerked back violently, at least a dozen of the projectiles estabbed straight through her torso. She made a wet gurgling sound in the back of her throat, coughing up blood from her ruined lungs.

She gave me a look of horror, eyes already glazing over. She was staring at my mouth. I realized I was licking the blood off my hands and slammed my head into the wall. What was I doing? I glanced back, but the noble was already gone. Her body lay motionless, collapsed in an unnatural tangle of limbs, blood pooling under her.

Definitely dead.

I stood up shakily, taking a deep breath. The world shifted around me. I most likely had a concussion, my mind said. I needed to rest. I hadn't meant to use that much power. I hadn't meant to kill one of my test subjects just yet.

But I had. Instead I crouched next to the body, staring with a detached kind of curiosity as rigor mortis set in, her limbs stiffening, her skin turning a pallid shade of grey before cracking, turning to red dust, and leaving me alone with a colossal headache and a pool of blood seeping into the wooden floorboards.

I groaned, falling to my knees and holding my head in my hands. What had come over me? I hadn't set out to kill her, hadn't meant to send those deadly arrows of shadow ripping through her flesh.

But was that really true? Some part of me had wanted it, had wanted to tear that flesh and spill that blood. The sadistic evil part of me, the part that I rarely let show unless I had a very good reason.

I was no stranger to death, but I'd never seen one like this. It struck me then, I'd never before that day seen a noble die. Much less killed one. I should be happy, knowing that the traitorous demons among hem, the ones plaguing my own species, could be killed.

But instead I just felt numb.

I stumbled back down the stairs, steadying myself and regaining my composure before getting a mop to wipe up the blood.

I got upstairs and fought the disturbing urge to kneel down and lap up the blood off the floor. Must be the concussion, I thought. I was drifting in and out of consciousness, fighting to simultaneously resist the macabre urges and stay awake.

I mopped up the blood in a dreamlike state, until every last drop of the stuff has disappeared from the wooden floorboards. They are spotless and my fingers are numb.

I stumbled to my room and collapsed in my bed without so much as bothering to clean the blood off my face.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up with the second worst headache I'd ever had in my life. I rolled over dazedly. My fingers felt sticky and there was something dried on my face. I opened my eyes, flinching at the bright light. I was about to roll over and go back to sleep.

Then it hit me. I remembered what had happened the day before. I groaned, forcoming my eyes to stay open and getting out of bed. My sleeves and shirt were stained rust colored and I shuddered to think what my face must look like. 

Changing out of my ruined clothes, I washed up while carefully avoiding the mirror. I didn't want to see what I looked like. It was probably terrifying. I wasn't really affected, just irritated with myself for failing to wash up the day of the incident.

It's not like my test subjects haven't escaped before. This wasn't the first time. I was disappointed in my own performance, however. Concussions are easy to work through most of the time, but apparently not this time.

Once I'd cleaned myself up enough, I headed back down to my laboratory to mix pain medicine for myself. Checking the dosage, I nodded. Everything was in order.

"Hey! You!" I inclined my head. Apparently I'd even forgotten to sedate the captives. Maybe I should start giving them higher amounts of tranquilizers, I thought. Anything to shut them up. I really was getting sick of their attitudes. Not to mention I needed to tighten their restraints.

Another thing I'd realized is that if I wanted to study them, i needed them alive. The body from yesterday had disintegrated right in front of my eyes and I wasn't about to repeat that mistake. It was a rare opportunity, this, to study the enemy.

And if I killed one of them again, it was going to be in a controlled environment with a clear purpose and lots on monitoring equipment. There was so much I could learn from such an event.

"Here we go," i said cheerfully, opening the cell door. "I've got the sedatives. Don't worry, you won't have to look at me much longer." I set down the tray carefully, walking up to the nearest captive and cautiously tightening his restraints.

"Ow! That hurts," he yelped. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be a baby. It's not that bad," I mumbled. Not as bad as an actual injury, at least. And I was no stranger to those. As I checked the rest of them, I briefly wondered if the family leaders had realized that these four weren't coming back yet. That they'd failed their mission to capture me.

After finishing up there, I made my way back upstairs and cleaned the house, ignoring my pounding skull. The injury could wait, and I knew it would be gone in a couple days anyway. Basic concussion. Nothing to be concerned about, really, in the grand scheme of things.

I had more pressing concerns, like whether the nobles would come after me in greater force once they learned what happened. I had to abandon this place soon, I knew, but I was loathe to do so. I'd grown fond of the house, and I do so hate to loose my possessions.

You could join us. Give us your soul.

I shook my head irritably. The cursed thing had gotten far louder in recent hours. Probably because it sensed my weakness. "No," I said aloud. "Shut up. I'm trying to work here. Nonsense poetry can wait till later." No response, just more meaningless whispers. I sighed, bracing myself for a long day. The last day here, I'd decided. Tomorrow, i would destroy the laboratory here and leave.

The day went quickly, conducting more tests on the nobles. I almost felt sorry for them, watching. Putting immense strain on their bodies seemed the only timely way to learn exactly what they were capable of, so that's what I was doing. It was nice to have such strong subjects, ones that I could push to their limits without breaking.

But I broke them anyway, because I couldn't simply leave them here when I left. The cursed weapon had demanded souls again, and I must admit I'd been curious to see how it would affect it. I hadn't enjoyed it, but I'd given them to the damned thing. It wasn't a pretty sight.

That seemed to shut it up for now, at least. 

A knock on the door came just as I finished destroying my research. I had it all committed to memory anyway. I still hated it, watching all my work here go up in smoke. Again. The flames crackled, smoke burning my lungs and eyes, but I didn't look away until the pounding on the door came again. I ignored it.

I gathered up various vials and tools, placing them carefully in a bag as the door splintered into kindling. Narrowing my eyes, I leaped the stairs, calmly walking outside into the evening light where nearly a dozen nobles stood waiting for me.

"It's him!" I nodded, keeping a smile on my face.

"Yes, you found me. Why Lukedonia is sending the Central Knights after me?" I stared at each of them in turn. I could tell the Dark Spear was eager to fight, the whispers getting louder inside my mind.

Horrid thing.

"You are accused of attacking nobles," said one of them. I almost laughed out loud. Arrogant creatures, thinking that they could come after me simply for something like that. And they'd come after me first, hadn't they?

"Oh, is that so?" I said, grinning. The one talking to me flinched but stood his ground, obviously unsettled by the dark aura radiating off me in waves.

"You should come which us." I liked him. He cut to the chase.

"I don't think so," I said. They drew their weapons and I couldn't hold my composure anymore. I burst out laughing. "KAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Well have to take you in by force, then," he said, ignoring the mocking laughter.

"I'd like to see you try." Lashing out with my powers, I ripped him to shreds first, turning the air purple and red and black as the others shouted, panicking already. A wave of energy knocked them all back, turning to spikes and tearing through their flesh. I frowned. Controlling this new power was definitely difficult.

I turned around just as several of them disappeared into the trees. Oh well, I thought. Now more than ever I had to leave here. I knew what I had to do. The arrogant nobles certainly wouldn't expect me to bring the fight to them, I knew. And soon, I would do just that.

I smiled to myself, finishing off the wounded nobles that remained alive and hadn't fled yet. The dark power certainly like that, I noted, the whispers getting louder and more insistent. The more I fed it, the more it wanted. That was mildly concerning.

I knew I had to go quickly - word would reach Lukedonia quickly and I didn't want to be here when it did. I wanted to be there, finding out for myself why they'd created those mutants. Why they'd betrayed my race after so long.

I went back inside, carefully collecting the things I intended to take with me before striking a match and setting fire to the house and watching it burn, my home of tree months going up in smoke.

I frowned. I never had done the laundry after the incident. The one thing I'd left unfinished here. I went back into the house one last time, to collect my things. Hten I left it for the last time, striking a match and watching my most recent home go up in smoke.

I turned away. The sight was distasteful.

I took a look at the massacre, wrestling some strange feeling of loss as I watched the blood drain into the earth. I reflexively put my hand on the bag I carried, the one containing the vials of noble blood I'd taken from my lab.

What was wrong with me? I shook my head. This wasn't your usual concussion, if the strange fixation with their blood involved my concussion at all. I would certainly need to study it more, I thought, as I made my way down the road toward the cliffs and, hopefully, toward Lukedonia.


	3. Chapter 3

I stood on a cliff overlooking the sea, waves dashing against the rocky surface and water droplets spraying up even high enough to mist my face. I smoothed my hair out of my face, watching the water.

"Now that I'm here, the nobles stopped chasing," I muttered to myself. "They couldn't have guessed that I'd be here in Lukedonia." I smiled. "Foolish royalty, who are full of pride. Making a mistake like this," I added. Louder this time, for the benefit of the person behind me and not myself.

"You're not wrong," came the reply. A man's voice. "We never thought you'd sneak in here like this." I was surprised at the tone of voice. Not jeering, like most nobles, just somber and slightly irritated. I turned around.

"It's an honor, for such a  _great_ noble to know my name," I replied mockingly, surveying the man in front of me. Tall, with streaks of black in his white hair and red eyes. Definitely a noble, but that was obvious. He seemed older than I'd expected, however. I'd thought all the nobles looked young.

"Just recently have I found out in detail," he said. "I would have known more about you if you didn't keep everything a secret."I gave him a withering look. If I hadn't kept everything a secret, they'd probably have caught and killed me by now to keep their secrets.

"Where are my manners? I am Gejutel K. Landegre, head of the Landegre family." Damn. I really was in trouble, I thought. One of the thirteen family leaders? The ones that lead the noble families?

It would be a difficult fight, for sure.

"Ragya Kertia." I turned sharply. I hadn't noticed him there and it came as a shock. I didn't turn around, addressing the man in front of me. "I lead the Kertia family." Damn. I really did have no chance, now. I didn't let them know it though, keeping my smile.

"What an  _honor,"_ I said. "I get to meet two great family leaders that lead the royal families... so what brings not one but  _two_ family leaders here?" Gejutel frowned sternly.

"You seem to know a good amount of information about us, judging from your words." I nodded.

"I know there are 13 families that represent the nobles, and I know that the ones who lead them exist for almost an eternity while leading each family. You introduced yourselves as such, so you must be among them." I studied his face. Obviously, he was taken aback by how much I knew. Stupid arrogant nobles.

"Why?" I said. "Does it pose a problem that I know about you? Are you offended by the fact that a petty being like myself knows so much about the great family leaders?" I narrowed my eyes at him. Good thing I'd left my bag behind. They certainly would've been offended by what was in it.

"No," responded the white-haired noble. "We aren't known to the human world. The fact that you know about us at all is quite surprising." I briefly imagined grinding his face into the dirt with my heel before responding.

"Enough with that. You haven't answered my question," I deadpanned. "Why are you here?"

"To take you in." It figured. I closed my fist, heading the whispers get more intense. The cursed thing certainly liked where this was going.

"Ha! Take me where? It takes two family leaders just to get me?" Mocking them came naturally. Being polite was much more difficult.

"You'll know if you come with us." It wasn't hard to tell where they wanted me to go.

"You want me to meet the Lord?" I could tell by their faces I was right - well, the one in front of me anyway. Landegre. Kertia, I had no clue.

"Come on," I mocked. "You don't have to make such a face. It must be an order from the Lord for two family leaders to be here. It wasn't really hard to guess." They shifted uncomfortably. I caught myself staring at Kertia's neck and frowned.

What was wrong with me? This damn concussion. But this was not symptoms for a concussion. I needed to find out what was going on.

"If your Lord wants to see me so much, why doesn't he come and talk to me himself?" They drew back, shocked. I rolled my eyes. "What? The Lord is a lord to the noble families, not to a human like me. He doesn't order me to come and go as he pleases." Kertia narrowed his eyes.

"How dare you." He looked disgusted, like I'd issued a personal affront. For all I knew, i had. Typical noble pride. I wanted to kill him so badly. Tear him limb from limb, watch his blood splatter all over me, and -

No. That was the Dark Spear talking, not me. It had to be. I'm not...

"So that's why they were chasing me," I realized. They'd sent their knights after me because their leader wanted to meet me. I wasn't sure if I should be proud or offended. I went with irritated.

"We weren't going to hold you responsible for hunting nobles even bought it was a great sin. If you didn't kill nobles like a hunter and use them for experiments, no one would be chasing you." Typical hypocrisy. They'd hunted me first, what was the 'sin' in me turning the tables on them?

Unless, of course, they thought of humans as lesser beings.

"That's ridiculous. A human like me can't hunt nobles, but you can hunt my kind?" A look of shock came over Landegre's face. Apparently, he hadn't known. That or he was a good actor.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Several villages were destroyed not long ago. You're saying you had no hand in it?"

"Nobles hunting humans?" Apparently this one was a little slow. I decided I liked Landegre better.

"This isn't the first time," I growled. "Before you tell me the mutants did it, just know that they weren't created from nothing." Landegre scowled at me.

"Human, don't be unreasonable. We can't control the way a mutant acts." I laughed. "Mutants are the result of humans making deals with the nobles of their own accord and creating other contractors. It's simply humans acting reckless."

"The mutants still came from you," I shouted. "They are the result of humans making deals with nobles!" I clenched my fist. "They are monsters you created!" I lunged forward, releasing a beam of dark energy at Kertia.

He dodged it. I cursed under my breath. I take it back, I thought. He's not slow at all. Compared to him, I'm the slow one.

"Gejutel, stay back." He walked toward me, but I could tell he was ready to dodge again if it was necessary. "Even if he is much stronger than a regular human, two of us are not necessary to capture him."

So that's how it was going to be.

I blinked.

He disappeared.

Wh - Behind me - 

I threw myself backward just in time. The explosion shook the cliff. I was shocked. These two had powers on a level so much different than the others...

Stab.

my back.

How dare he.

I lost my temper. Enough suppressing this stupid power of mine. I was done running away. I turned, shooting him again. He caught it easily.

"Truly, you are a family leader after all," I hissed. "Then try this one!" I surrounded him in projectiles. He dodged them all easily and came at me, swinging.

Dodge. Block. Lunge. Stab. Punch. Block. Dodge.

He was too fast. I couldn't anticipate where he would be, so I just had to lunge for where I thought he would be next. I couldn't deny my satisfaction, however, when my fist did eventually connect with his face.

He recoiled as the ground under our feet started to shake. We fought our way down the cliff and broke apart as we landed.

"He's very impressive for a human," noted Landegre. I gritted my teeth. Kertia nodded.

"I agree with you, Gejutel. It's only fair that the Knights lost to him. I can't kill him and we have to take him in, what should I do?" He seemed to reach a conclusion rather quickly.

"Human, I have no choice but to take you in." My eyes widened as he drew the weapon. I'd never seen a would weapon in person, but I'd heard of them before.

"I'm sorry I have to use my Kartas. I dreally it out to give you credit. I hope you are not offended." 

I wasn't offended. I was just plain screwed.

"That's a soul weapon." It wasn't a question, just a statement. One meant to surprise them and give me an opportunity to regain my composure.

What on earth was I supposed to do against a family leader with a soul weapon? Even if I did somehow beat him, there was another one to deal with.

I had to use it.

Dark Spear.


End file.
